Ball controversy overshadows Escude triumph
France's Nicolas Escude walked off with his second consecutive World Indoor Tournament title on Sunday but the talking point during the week was 'balls'.
Win or lose, player after player voiced their frustrations with the type balls being used at the 2002 tournament.
"If you spoke to the players, this specific ball would not get many votes," said Briton Tim Henman, who lost his third Rotterdam final match in four years on Sunday.
"It starts off okay but once it's been hit it gets very very soft and you hit your best shots and it almost has no effect on your opponent.
"When you're an attacking type of player that's not a good sight."
Henman's compatriot Greg Rusedski, a first round loser, agreed: "You pick up one ball and it's hard as brick and the next one is dead and slow. There is no consistency with the balls."
Complaints aside, there was plenty of on court drama as the two finalists counted themselves lucky to be in the title match.
While a pumped-up Henman fought his way back from match point down to defeat France's Fabrice Santoro in the second round, a dead and buried Escude managed to surprise everyone by staving off three match points in his marathon semifinal win over his Davis Cup team mate Sebastein Grosjean.
Although the unseeded Escude, a runner-up in Marseille the week before, admitted he was exhausted having played non-stop for a month, he certainly did not make life easier for himself during the tournament.
He accounted for four seeds, including top seed Juan Carlos Ferrero in the first round, en route to the title but each time had to fight his way back from a set down.
Being a seed did not prove to be a safety cushion at the Ahoy centre either. Five, including the top three, had perished by the end of the second round.
There was not much to shout about for the home fans either as for the first time since 1984, Dutch representation ended in the first round -- 1998 champion Jan Siemerink aiding the cull by blowing five match points in his defeat to big serving Croatian Ivan Ljubicic.
But for a tired Escude, it was mission accomplished as he headed home to Geneva with a cheque for $128,400 safely tucked away in his back pocket.
